Erdoğan backs Ottoman barracks in Istanbul’s Gezi Park

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has again backed the redevelopment of Istanbul’s Gezi Park — a project that sparked nationwide anti-government protests three years ago.

“One of the issues that we have to be brave [about] is Gezi Park in Taksim,” Erdoğan said at a meeting on the city's heritage. “We will construct that historical building there,” referring to a replica of the Ottoman military barracks first constructed in 1780 and destroyed in 1940. He said the square should house also an opera, Turkey's official Anadolu news agency said in a report Saturday.

In May 2013, opponents of the development gathered in the park, a rare green space in the heart of Istanbul, protesting against the president's efforts to glorify Turkey's Ottoman past, which they said encroached on the country's modern, secular values and human rights. Eight protesters and a police officer were killed, thousands were injured and hundreds were detained. The protests spread around the country in what became known as the Turkish Spring.

At the meeting Saturday, Erdoğan appeared determined to move ahead with the development.

Referring to the resolution passed by the German parliament on June 2 recognizing the 1915 mass killings of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey as an act of genocide, Erdoğan suggested creating a military museum in the Gezi Park with a display of past German, French and American misdeeds, according to the Anadolu report.